Challenge.

Strategy.

As with all brands at Notepad, we aren’t in the business of just making things look nice for the sake of it. Through extensive market research, customer interviews, competitor mapping, and market analysis, we set out to not just create a new brand for the studio, but also create completely uncontested market space.

Through speaking to industry experts and looking at materials typically used in the millinery industry we discovered that while the majority of the fashion-world has made big steps towards being animal-friendly, milliners still regularly (and quite shockingly) still use feathers, felts and furs without any clear information of where such materials have come from or how ethically they’ve been sourced.

This was our opportunity.

The client herself was already a proud vegan and environmentalist so by combining her passion for animal welfare with her award-winning millinery skills, we’d found our own unique market positioning.

After exploring hundreds of names for the new ethically-powered brand, we came full circle and decided the client’s surname ‘Warrillow’ held just the right levels of personal touch and aesthetic flowing beauty, we wanted the brand to portray.

With the name established, we then developed the tagline ‘Handcrafted vegan millinery’ to sum up everything the brand stood for in one package, and centered the brand story and messaging on the revolutionary idea of changing the world, one hat a time.

Identity.

With the brand strategy, positioning, narrative and tone of voice outlined, we teamed up with the talented illustrator and brand designer Claire Hartley to bring our vision for Warrillow to life.

The Warrillow logo takes a delicate hand-crafted approach to mirror the client’s approach to millinery, and this soft but friendly aesthetic rings true through every element of the identity.

As a brand that makes 100% animal-friendly products, a key material for all Warrillow hats, fascinators and headpieces is an organic material called Sinamay, which originates from the Abaca tree. Inspired by this, Claire illustrated a Warrillow leaf mark which works as a standalone device and as a pattern across Warrillow’s marketing materials and packaging.

Across the industry, Millinery photography tends to feature a lot of very serious looking models. This approach is fine, but it’s not what Warrillow stands for. The right hat can make anyone feel amazing and we wanted Warrillow’s brand photography to capture this true sense of joy. Under the theme of a summer garden party, we teamed up with photographer, Roo Lewis, to create a bank of unique photography that truly reflects the client’s approach to millinery. Further to this, to showcase the client’s totally handcrafted approach to millinery we captured a series of more intimate shots to showcase the love, care and attention that goes into every Warrillow creation.

Launch.

With our brand guidelines, packaging and animal-friendly hats ready to go, we launched Warrillow’s ecommerce website and crafted the strategy for building a global community of hat-loving animal-friendly fans. Through newsletter marketing, social media marketing, and trade PR, Warrillow is now making waves in the industry and on a mission to change the hat-making world for the better. Jacqueline Gold (Anne Summers founder) recently crowned Warrillow as one of 3 #WOW (Women in business) winners, and Theo Paphitis named Warrillow the winner of Small Business Sunday.